Good Fathers Figure

Pro-Life Profile

There’s no
avoiding it: Dads take a beating in the popular culture. When they’re not
portrayed as hopelessly inept, fathers are made out to be crude, ignorant or
otherwise loathsome (often in some new, shocking, “envelope-pushing” way).

The Knights of Columbus are out to
fight back against the lies with their new, Web-based initiative called Fathers
for Good. (It’s online at FathersforGood.org.)

“The goal of Fathers for Good is
really to restore a positive image of the father and a confidence in the
father,” explains the website’s editor, Brian Caulfield. “He does have this
vocation, the calling by God to be a father to his children.”

Of course, many resources already
exist to help Christian fathers fulfill their duties. Fathers for Good’s
animating characteristic is promoting the sacraments of the Catholic Church,
along with the classic virtues, in ways family men can relate to. And it’s open
to all, meaning non-Knights are most welcome.

According to Caulfield, the idea for
Fathers for Good came directly from the Knights of Columbus’ supreme knight,
Carl Anderson. Why mainly on a website? Not only is the Internet a major source
of information and ideas for many men today, but “we’re responding to the
Vatican’s call for presence on the Web,” says Caulfield.

Just this spring, Pope Benedict XVI
reiterated his call to deploy “new technologies” in the service of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. (Along with its rich and well-established website, the Vatican
itself has an impressively dynamic presence on YouTube and Facebook.)

Many aspects about Fathers for Good
are drawing viewers eager to learn what real fatherhood is and how to live it.
For one, the multimedia approach is attracting the curious as well as the
committed.

As president of the St. Louis
Chapter of the Knights of Columbus, Lukas, along with 1,100 other men, learned
of Fathers for Good in March at the annual Catholic Men for Christ Conference
in St. Louis, where Caulfield set up a display.

“It was a great tie-in and a perfect
match,” says Lukas of the website and that men’s conference. So much so, that
through him the organizers have already invited Caulfield to return and
incorporate Fathers for Good concepts into the 2010 conference.

Among the website’s most popular
features are the podcastsfocusing on big issues
fathers face. One of these has former New York Giants Super Bowl champ Chris
Godfrey offering tips for fathers reticent about having “the talk” with their
kids. His basic message: Be confident. God gave you these children, and, if
you’ll familiarize yourself with the Church’s teachings, he will give you the
words to convey the theology of the body in a way your kids will both understand
and appreciate.

Reality Resonates

There are also popular podcasts from
the likes of Helen Alvare, Janet Smith, Mike Aquilina and Dr. Ray Guarendi, a
Register “Family Matters” columnist.

There are recorded videos, too.
Three new ones especially connected to Father’s Day bring perspectives and
advice on fatherhood from EWTN news director Raymond Arroyo, theologian Scott
Hahn and legal scholar Robert George.

In Portland, Ore., David Renshaw looks forward
to Fathers for Good’s words of wisdom and finds the testimonies and guidance “a
real godsend.”

“If we hear from people who are
going through the same things we are, or are in the same place we are, it
resonates,” says Renshaw, a father of three.

He also points to the
question-and-answer interviews with knights and fathers. “Newsworthy Dads”
brings these to viewers constantly. According to Caulfield, one of the biggest
“hit getters” focused on U.S. Navy Commander Frank Castellano of the
USS Bainbridge, who led the April rescue of the commercial captain
held hostage by Somali pirates.

Others celebrate fathers who don’t
make the national news but are heroes in their own communities or parishes.

Articles are plentiful too,
beginning with the monthly feature. “These articles aren’t highfalutin but hit
at the heart of the family, those day-to-day struggles we go through,” says
Renshaw. “They make us perk up our ears and listen.”

Indeed, two other dynamics come into
play here, as Renshaw explains. First, his wife, Heather, reads a lot of the
Fathers for Good materials — including the resources in the aptly titled
section “Good for Mothers.”

Second, as founder of a men’s
apostolate called Real Catholic Men (RealCatholicMen.com), which launched the
first Catholic men’s conferences in the Pacific Northwest, Renshaw shares links
with anyone and everyone he thinks may have an interest.

Lukas gets the word out as well. In
one instance, he took the three St. Joseph series booklets available from the
Father’s Bookshelf on the website (they’re free in bulk to men’s groups and
parishes) and distributed them to knights and non-knights alike. Wives
appreciated them too, and he discovered them encouraging their husbands about
the site.

Good Gift

Interactive features are another
draw on the website. These provide a supportive online community, a father’s
blog and a question-and-answer section that matches advice-seeking fathers with
answering experts.

Everything works together with
Fathers for Good in what Father Luke Sweeney, vocations director for the
Archdiocese of New York, sees as a crucial time to re-establish the true
meaning of fatherhood — and, with it, the essence of manhood.

Father Sweeney sees an additional
major impact the site can have. “One of the reasons vocations have suffered,” he
says, “is that the ideal of fatherhood and manhood in the Church, in society,
and in our world has not been properly understood.”

He says the resulting “father
wounds” evident in some seminary candidates need to be healed if the men are to
become effective priests.

“When I see the website,” says
Father Sweeney, “I can’t help but think what a great benefit this is for a
parish priest.”

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